Peace Dollar
Obverse Design: Lady Liberty
Designer: Anthony De Francisci
Design Year: 1921
Reverse Design: Perched Bald Eagle
Designer: Anthony De Francisci
Design Year: 1921
Production Years: 1921-1928, 1934-1935, 1964
Mintmarks: None (Philadelphia), D (Denver), S (San Francisco)
Mintmark Location: Beneath the word ‘One’ on reverse
Diameter: 38.1mm
Thickness: 2.0mm
Edge: Reeded
Composition: 90% Silver, 10% Copper
Mass: 26.73g
Notes: The peace dollar is so called because of the word “Peace” appearing on the bottom of the reverse. Production of Morgan Dollars stopped after 1904 due to lack of demand. In 1918 the Pittman Act was passed, requiring the Mint to melt up to 350 million silver dollar coins into bullion, purchase an equivalent amount of silver from US mines, and produce new silver dollars. Production of Morgan dollars was resumed in 1921 to meet the requirement until a new design could be produced. An open competition was held to find the design for the new coin, which was won by Anthony De Francisci. Production of Peace dollars began in 1921, with just over 1 million produced before it was realized the relief was too high, causing dies to break and making the coins very difficult to stack. The requirements of the Pittman Act were satisfied by 1928 and production stopped until 1934-35, to provide additional backing for silver certificates. After being out of production from 1935-1964, more Peace dollars were produced in 1965 (dated 1964) in compliance with an executive order from President Johnson, but Congress overruled the order and the coins were never released to the public. The entire mintage was supposed to be melted, and the government regards any in private hands as illegal stolen property. The Peace Dollar was the last dollar coin containing 90% silver produced for circulation in the US.
Peace Dollar Mintages
Issue Total Mintage Notes
1921 1,006,473 EF or higher are rare
1922 51,737,000
1922-D 15,063,000
1922-S 17,475,000
1923 30,800,000
1923-D 6,811,000
1923-S 19,020,000
1924 11,811,000
1924-S 1,728,000
1925 10,198,000
1925-S 1,610,000 Near mint very valuable
1926 1,939,000
1926-D 2,348,700
1926-S 6,980,000 S may be higher or lower than usual
1927 848,000
1927-D 1,268,900
1927-S 866,000
1928 360,649 EF or higher are rare
1928-S 1,632,000 Near mint very valuable
1934 954,057
1934-D 1,569,500 D may be small or large
1934-S 1,011,000 EF or higher are rare
1935 1,576,000
1935-S 1,964,000 Some have extra ray below "One"
1964-D 316,076 Destroyed, illegal to own
